Abstract

Jessie Wilson Sayre was the daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and was a
political activist. The Jessie Wilson Sayre Papers document the close relationships
amongst the Wilson and Axson families in the early twentieth century, and provide
details into their lives.

Description

Description

The Jessie Wilson Sayre Papers document the close relationships amongst the Wilson
and Axson families in the early twentieth century and provide details into their
lives. The collection includes correspondence to and from Jessie Wilson Sayre, before
and after her marriage. The bulk of the collection is correspondence to Sayre before
her marriage from her parents, sisters, and her mother's family, the Axsons. The
collection also contains her address book.

Collection Creator
Biography

Jessie Woodrow Wilson Sayre was the daughter of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson and was a
political activist. She was born in Gainesville, Georgia on August 28, 1887, the second
daughter of Woodrow and Ellen Axson Wilson. She was educated privately in Princeton and
at Goucher College in Baltimore; after her graduation from Goucher, she worked at a
settlement home in Philadelphia for three years. She was also involved with the YWCA,
serving on its national board. She married Francis Bowes Sayre (a Harvard professor,
Ambassador to Siam, Assistant Secretary of State for Franklin Rooselvelt and U. S. High
Commissioner for the Philippines) on November 25, 1913 at the White House and had three
children with him, Francis Bowes Sayre, Jr., Eleanor Axson Sayre, and Woodrow Wilson
Sayre. After World War I, the Sayres moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Sayre
worked in the interests of the Democratic Party, the League of Nations, and the League
of Women Voters. In 1928 Sayre made the introductory speech for presidential nominee
Alfred Smith at the Democratic National Convention and in 1929 her name was mentioned as
a candidate for the Democratic nomination for United States Senator; she declined. After
that time, she continued to participate actively as a party official in Massachusetts.
Sayre died after an emergency appendectomy operation on January 15, 1933, in Cambridge,
Massachusetts.

Bibliography

Access and Use

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish materials
from the collection must be requested from the Curator of the Public Policy Papers.
Researchers are responsible for determining copyright questions.

Alternative Form Available

Digital images of the collection, created in 2008 by the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Musuem, are available on DVD
and are also available from this finding aid. The images appear to have be colorized; original photographs are black and white.

Contents and Arrangement

Arrangement

The Jessie Wilson Sayre Papers are organized into the following sections:
Correspondence from Jessie Wilson (Sayre), Correspondence to Jessie Wilson (Sayre),
and Jessie Wilson Sayre's Address Book. Within each section, folders are arranged
alphabetically.